Such a marine thermal energy plant generally includes a floating platform on which means are placed for producing electricity from the temperature difference in the surface and deep water, said platform also being associated with means forming a pipe for drawing cold water up from a depth.
The operating principle of such an OTE (Ocean Thermal Energy) facility consists of using the temperature difference that exists naturally between the surface and deep water of the oceans to run a thermal machine.
Due to the laws of thermodynamics, to have an acceptable efficiency, the implementation of such an OTE facility is only justified with a temperature difference for example greater than 20° C.
Typically, the water can for example be at a temperature of 25° C. on the surface and a temperature of 5° C. at 1000 meters deep.
One can then see that this limits the use of such facilities to specific areas, for example such as tropical areas.
The cold water must then be pumped at a very significant depth through means forming a suction pipeline associated with the platform, while the hot water is pumped on the surface.
Various attempts to develop OTE-based energy production facilities have already been made.
Efforts were for example made by Georges CLAUDE in the 1930s.
Of course, other operators have made attempts since then.
However, the very large majority of these attempts have failed due to various problems, and in particular problems of the mechanical strength of certain elements of those facilities with the environmental conditions encountered.
It is in fact known that in the geographical areas in which these facilities can be installed, particular meteorological conditions may be encountered such as relatively strong ocean currents, storms, etc., which causes the deterioration or even breakage of certain parts of the facility.
In particular, the cold water suction pipe has posed many deformation, or even breakage problems.